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Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

March 12, 2008

First, I wanted to thank you all for sharing your pet stories when I posted about our collie/sheltie Tippy and the great demise of the cinnamon buns. It really brightened my weekend and brought on a couple of welcome laughs! Those animals sure are unbelievable!!

Now, the Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes... B's mom called Monday night and we started to chat about everything and nothing as we usually do, and she started to beat around the bush, as she usually does, about needing me to bake something for her garden club. She is a talented baker but she does not get in the kitchen much nowadays, and she knows I am happy to give her and "her ladies" a hand whenever I can. I usually try to fit the cake, treats, and sweets to the theme of their meeting, but when she pronounced the words "Easter" I admit I drew a blank. I am still warming up to Peeps and Chicks (nothing wrong there just different countries different candies) and really beside liking the colors I don't think I wanted to make a bunny cake or something like that (nothing wrong there either). I hung up and went outside to consult with my favorite baking associates, the Twins. We sat down on the sidewalk and after a good ten minutes of dreaming out loud about their favorite desserts, I asked them their favorite questions "So, what do you think I should bake?" They both said vanilla cupcakes with yellow frosting and tons of sprinkles.

They got very distracted by the two little girls at the end of the street so I went on baking and told them to come later help me with the sprinkles. I think it was the loudest "Yeah!" I had ever heard!! I don't know if they were more excited about the little girls or the sprinkles. In my perfect little world I don't think I want to know!!

While I was getting all the ingredients ready, I remembered that one of my favorite bloggers, Arfi from HomeMades was hosting a Cupcake Spectacular this month. Very timely! For the cupcakes I went with the tried and true Vanilla ones from Magnolia Bakery and Rose Levy Berembaum mousseline buttercream. I could eat both together or separately by the bucket... I went for minis for a couple of reasons: I love treats that fit in the palm of my hand and the ladies at the garden club have an easier time pretending they only ate four two. When the kids arrived for the decorating part they were really happy to empty a couple of bottles of sprinkles on the cupcakes. Their words? "Look it's raining sprinkles! Cool!"....and I now have multicolored floors!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Line two 24-cup muffin tins with mini cupcake papers.Combine the flours together and sift them. Set aside.In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Do not overmix the batter. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about three-quarters full (I use a mini ice cream scoop to do that) Bake for 20 minutes, or until the tip of a knife or skewer inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean.Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip with the buttercream and pipe it on the cupcakes. Decorate with sprinkles if desired.

In the bowl of stand mixer, whip 5 egg whites until they have soft peaks.In the meantime, combine 1/4 cup water with 3/4 cup sugar to a boil in a heavy saucepan and bring the syrup to 250F. Slowly add the sugar syrup to the egg whites. If you use hand beaters, this is even easier and there is less hot syrup splatter on the side of your bowl and in the whisk attachment of the stand mixer. Continue to whip until the meringue is completely cooled.Slowly add the butter, one tablespoon at a time. The mass might curddle but no panic, continue to whip until it all comes together. Add the vanilla extract and the food coloring if using.

... and you think my panna cotta is going to be the downfall of your hips? Your frosting is going to give me a coronary! ;-) I really like these - they look cute and colorful. I think they would be cool for a birthday party - maybe Soeren's

Delicious and very springy! You could definitely easily eat four! or more!

Peeps are one of those things that I am still not sure I like so I have to eat the whole box to find out again...to further entertain the twins, place two peeps facing each other into the microwave. Stick toothpicks into the peeps so they are pointed at each other. Microwave for 30 seconds at most...you have peep jousting! It still cracks my mother and I up!

adorable! I have 3 vanilla beans in my cupboard I've been saving, but they would be fun to subsitute for the paste in this recipe. Do you think that would work well? I definitely want to get my hands on some of that paste, too- I'e heard rave reviews. beautiful pics, as always :)

You've got some serious skills! Look at that piping. So perfect! I wish I need how to decorate cakes. These sound really good. I was assigned to make two kinds of cupcakes for my sister's wedding shower, so I might have to make these.

I'm sorry you couldn't participate in the Pub Crawl, but that's ok. I'm not going to push it on to people and try to force them to. YOU MUST PARTICIPATE! Ha ha. I've actually had people do that to me in the past.

how do we use the other 1/4 cup of sugar in the frosting? I already made these once and just added the rest of the sugar while beating the buttercream, it got grainy at first of course, but hte grains melted afterwards...

a stick of butter = how much in ounce or gram weight? i work in restaurants so usually my stick of butter is a pound even. i think store bought for home use butter comes in a pound but packages into 4 smaller sticks? i'm hoping by 4 sticks you mean one pound even.